The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for use in a pharmacy and more particularly relates to a device for more rapidly, safely and conveniently transferring unit dosages of a medical fluid from a bulk container to smaller containers such as vials or unit dosage syringes.
Those pharmacies which service relatively large hospitals are often required to fill many disposable unit dosage syringes with identical quantities of an identical medical fluid. For example, a large hospital may need, on a routine daily basis, 100 syringes each filled with 2 milliliters of a particular analgesic. Ordinarily, this work is performed in a laminar flow environment. It may be done entirely manually by piercing the needle of the unit dosage syringe through the resilient top of a vial and withdrawing the desired volume of the fluid.
Various other systems and associated apparatus have been devised for manually or semi-manually filling the dosage syringes. For example, a large syringe may be filled with the source fluid and used as the source. The smaller unit dosage syringes are consecutively connected in communication with the large syringe and manual depression of the plunger of the large syringe fills each smaller syringe. Other analogus hand pump systems have also been suggested.
The systems presently known suffer from one or more of several disadvantages. Those simple manual systems which require a minimum of equipment require tedious and extensive manual manipulation and depend upon a visual determination of the proper dosage volume. These systems are consequently very slow and require substantial human labor.
Those systems which utilize more elaborate mechanical equipment are often so bulky that they interrupt the laminar flow of the controlled environment so that it is no longer aseptic. Additionally and more importantly the fluid conducting elements of such equipment are designed for a unique mechanical function. They must be reused and require disassembly, thorough cleansing, sterilization and subsequent sterile reassembly. Some previously known mechanical devices expose the operator to dangerous moving mechanical parts. Some move or rock the syringe being filled making difficult the connection and disconnection of the syringe from the apparatus.
There is therefore a need for a compact apparatus for filling syringes and other relatively small medical fluid containers and which utilizes entirely disposable fluid conducting elements along its fluid path and which permits unit dosage syringes to be quickly, safely and easily connected to the apparatus, filled and then quickly disconnected to permit connection of the next syringe.